Riotoro CR1080, a small black box with amasing potential

Riotoro, is a spin-off company made out of former Corsair employees under which the infamous mr Rick Allen. Their company goal is to revolutionize cases and cooling equipment. Though Riotoro had to start from zero in a highly competitive and saturated market. Nevertheless the designs they have in their line-up are up for any challenge. Especially the CR1080 we review today got me intrigued at Computex 2017. Rick Allen told us that Q3 in 2017, their latest releases will be distributed on the European continent. More competition is better right? Time to open the box and see what potential this little black box has.

Unboxing:

The Riotoro CR1080 is an ultra-compact case that measures 245 mm x 359 mm x 394mm (WxHxD) so one can't even classify it as a Mid-Tower chassis. It is smaller and just a tad wider and features a dual chamber design. On one side it houses the cooling, motherboard and graphics card. The other chamber is reserved for the power supply and storage devices. We have seen this concept before in a few competitors’ offerings, though not at these dimensions. Nevertheless small doesn't mean we are talking about a mATX or even mITX casing. Nope the CR1080 is compatible with ATX motherboards and ATX power supplies.

Let us unbox the little critter :) One of the statements on the Riotoro homepage is that they live up to the no bull concept. Well this can be seen in the no frills cardboard box. The casing is however carefully wrapped and protected by the classic Styrofoam inserts.

Once unwrapped we spot a server like front with a gamer tinted acrylic windowed side panel. This side panel has an extrusion to allow wider graphics cards and taller tower coolers. While many manufacturers have abandoned optical drive support, the Riotoro CR1080 still has got room for one device. Although being it in a vertical position.

In the right chamber there is room for up to an ATX sized motherboard, though the picture gives it already away; the motherboard has to be installed inverted. One missed opportunity here is the lack of a proper sized cut-out behind the processor area to facilitate easier cooler installation. Four cut-outs are foreseen in the lower part to route the power and sata cables from one to the other chamber. At the top we spot two cut-outs to route the front panel connectors, audio and USB 3.0 cable. All cut-outs lack any rubber inlays, anyway the holes are well rounded so it that is not a huge miss besides aesthetic wise.

ATX, mATX and mITX motherboards

Graphics cards up to 300mm length (depending on the cooling installed)

7 expansion slots

Standard sized ATX power supplies up to 175x150x85mm

AIOs up to 120 size and Air Coolers up to 120mm in height

Probably to reduce cost only the two bottom slots are provided. The other 5 need to be removed from the casing, again not a big deal as most users will just only install a graphics card anyway.